Body wearable antenna technology has received considerable attention recently due to the attractive feature of being able to provide an antenna platform that is unobtrusive and therefore potentially more robust compared to conventional external radiator platforms such as ‘whip’ style antennas. The particular focus of body wearable technology has so far centered on vest mounted antenna systems due to the large available area and the ease of integration with the radio equipment, which is typically located in a backpack or within the vest. There has also been a concerted effort investigating the development of body wearable antennas on clothing fabrics rather than the more conventional technologies such as microwave laminates. While some potentially useful results have been achieved with body wearable antennas for narrowband applications less than 1 GHz, incorporating body wearable radiators generally compromises the overall radiation efficiency as the human body absorbs radiation in this frequency range. There has also been considerable activity in the investigation of patch based antennas for body wearable applications. Due to the relationship between the height of this form of printed antenna and the radiator bandwidth, however, patches are really only useful for frequencies above 2 GHz.
Thus, there is a need to overcome these and other problems of the prior art associated with body wearable antennas.